UK House Price Growth Accelerates: Halifax

The average price of £225,109 last month was a 0.8 per cent increase on the £223,271 recorded in August and up 4 per cent on the £214,879 average this time previous year.

United Kingdom house prices increased at a faster pace in September, data from the mortgage lender Halifax and IHS Markit showed Friday.

On an annual basis, prices were up four per cent on September past year, while month-on-month growth between August and September hit 0.8 per cent.

House prices in the three months to the end of last month were 1.4 per cent higher than in the previous quarter, which again was the fastest price growth on this measure since February.

Total home sales in August remained unchanged from July, and exceeded 100,000 for the eighth month in a row. "We do not anticipate this will have a significant effect on transaction volumes", Galley said.

Halifax's Galley also mentioned the prospect of a Bank of England (BOE) interest rate hike in the report.

Falling house prices in London were helping to fuel growth in other parts of the country, said Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders.

The data are in contrast to other surveys detailing a continued slowdown in annual house price inflation at the beginning of the autumn.

"The home counties have performed very well since 2012 in addition to some London boroughs, such as Newham and Waltham Forest, which have seen increases of more than 80 per cent per square foot". It is this shortage of properties which is driving price rises.

Halifax said a squeeze on spending and rising prices could stifle future demand, but it believed that the housing market was unlikely to be badly affected by any future interest rise by the Bank of England.

It seems more than apparent that the United Kingdom market has found its feet and is starting to gain momentum again.

"Real wages still have further to fall over the next six months and mortgage rates will rise soon", Mr Tombs said.

"With the ongoing issue of building supply, United Kingdom homeowners can be assured the price of their property will remain stable as we head towards 2018". What that often means is that the prices attached to those transactions reflect where the market was much earlier in the year, when prices were higher. However, the rate of growth nearly halved from the 1.5% recorded in the previous month. A vendor who commits to a significant price reduction one week is selling the next. Our research shows that new sellers in September were up a fifth on August.